Watch: Stop-and-Frisk and Police-Community Relations in the U.S.

Addressing an audience of prosecutors and policymakers gathered in New York City late last month, U.S. attorney general Eric Holder said, “As you’ve noted, what gets measured is what gets funded and what gets funded is what gets done.” In 2013, the federal government sent nearly $4 billion in criminal justice grants across the country to places including St. Louis. States and cities depend heavily on federal funding to augment slashed police and prosecutorial budgets. Resistant-to-change institutions also use federal funds to test new policies. “Federal grants,” according to a new Brennan Center report, “have an outsize impact on state and local criminal justice practices.” And grant money typically flows to agencies and organizations that quantify impact, damage, harm or success. Dollars flow, as Holder says, to what gets measured–and today’s panel being livestreamed out of Washington, D.C. is an insider’s look at what’s getting measured.